18-year-old West L.A. girl missing since Monday; classmates may know where she is

LOS ANGELES -- An 18-year-old woman who left her West Los Angeles home Monday to go to her volunteer job at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center but never showed up remained missing today, and police reached out to the public for help finding her.

Police said Caroline Karimi -- who has Asperger syndrome, a mild form of autism -- has no history of dropping from sight and had been scheduled to leave on a flight from Los Angeles to Boston today for a family gathering.

Karimi's father, Ardeshir Karimi, said he had planned to fly with his daughter, but he canceled their reservations in light of his daughter's disappearance.

The woman was seen leaving her home in the 2900 block of Queensbury Street around 7 a.m. Monday. She was also seen on surveillance video taken in the parking lot of a Vons grocery store in Cheviot Hills, getting out of her 2007 Toyota Prius, going inside to buy lunch and then getting back in the car.

The video "shows that she parked her car ... went to the grocery store, got her lunch, got back to the car and drove back without anybody following her," Ardeshir Karimi told NBC4.

He told the station he does not believe his daughter's Asperger's syndrome was a factor in her disappearance.

"She worked throughout the years with it and she practically was growing out of it, so I don't think it has anything to do with that," he said.

Authorities released a photo of Karimi accompanied by two female classmates -- twins Vivian and Valerie Lopez, who officers think may know the missing woman's whereabouts. Detectives want to talk to the young women, who have not been reported missing.